They set their sights high, and the third-graders in Tracy Eccles’ class met their goal by reading 100,000 minutes this year. By mid-March the class had achieved what they dreamed about doing at the beginning of the school year when they challenged themselves to read more at-home minutes than any of Eccles’ classes before them.

Students saw that last year’s class had read 98,000 minutes and they decided that 100,000 minutes was an attainable goal to read collectively. The class met and discussed how to meet the goal. They knew they had to read 12,000 minutes each month as a class, which broke down to about 33 minutes for each student every school night. Students surpassed their own projections – reading between 14,707 and 18,233 minutes each month.

Eccles, who has been teaching Lannon elementary students for seven years, expects that each of her students will read at least 15 minutes each night. She is proud of the challenging goal the students set for themselves.

“Because of this goal, most children are reading between 20 to 60 minutes each school night and their reading skills have improved significantly,” Eccles said.

“Students’ love of reading has increased,” she said. “They talk about books and now exchange book titles and give book suggestions to one another.”